agility photos

ASCA 2015

This year, I took Piper down to the ASCA trial at Tee Creek. We have gone every summer, it is my favourite trial of the year :) It was about a 3.5 hour drive, so this year we also camped at the farm for two nights, a first with my girl.

Saturday we were entered in two rally advanced runs, one sub-novice obedience run, and two jumpers agility runs. Sunday we were entered in a whole day of agility - two jumpers, two gamblers, and two standards.

Saturday we had a great day, qualifying in both rally runs, the obedience run, and one of the jumper runs. Not too shabby! Sunday we qualified in another jumper run (for Piper's first agility title, JS-N) and a standard run.

I was super happy with her. She was focused, and happy to work through the whole weekend. She ran, and qualified, in three different events in one day, and ran five times. In ASCA there's no option to lower heights until the dog is seven years, so Pip had to jump at 20". Normally we train and trial in AAC at 16", so she had a few dropped bars. I wasn't too concerned with that. I screwed up the timing for our gambler runs, so again, my fault. I was super happy Piper successfully did weaves for the first time in a trial! We've worked so hard with them this summer, it was nice to see her able to complete them. I definitely held her back though, I need to learn to trust her more.

Attached are the videos of our two jumper runs and two standards runs from Sunday afternoon.
http://youtu.be/oEMSeLbj4dc
http://youtu.be/-BySFuPjOA0
http://youtu.be/ryzaQmJlpSw
http://youtu.be/amfqoFiGdqY

Fall CKC trials

In early November, I entered Piper in a two rally novice runs and one obedience pre-novice run at the Georgina Kennel Club Trial. The trial was held in Lindsay, about half an hour from my parent's house, so travel was easy. It was probably the largest trial we had entered, with rally, obedience, and two conformation rings. The whole arena was full of dogs!

Piper was first dog on the line in the obedience ring, and rocked her final pre-novice leg. Yahoo!

We then had to wait about two hours for our first rally run. She already had a leg from the previous winter, and had her ASCA RN from the summer, so I was nervous but didn't doubt she would qualify. Hubris haha. I walked the course and it was a little awkward, but not very many fronts (which I struggle with). When it was our turn, we seemed to breeze through...until we got the second last sign and I thought "hey, I thought there was a similar sign near the beginning of the course...oh shit". I walked right past the third sign on the course. Stupid, nervous Kelly! So we didn't qualify in that run, even though everything else was beautiful. Oh well.

Waiting around another few hours for our second run, we chatted with a woman who had a Toller set up next to us. Turns out I had met her before through a mutual friend. My mom and her friend also stopped in to watch our last run. Now all of a sudden I'm surrounded by people I know and the pressure's on!

Piper warmed up beautifully as we prepared to go into the ring. The judge is already in the ring as we walk in. All of a sudden, Piper won't stop staring at her. I get her attention to start the course. Once we get going, she looks back at the judge again. The poor judge can't figure out what she's done...I can't figure out what she's done! Piper continues to half pay attention to me and half to the judge throughout the entire course. It was super sloppy, with tons of out-of-position marks off, but the judge passed us. I actually can't believe she scored us as well as she did! The only thing I can think of that threw Piper off was that there may have been a noise as she entered the ring. Maybe she associated it with the judge? It was just an odd run.

I do for sure think we both need practice at trials, specifically with ring nerves and proofing. We are going to do our best to find a few mock trials, or maybe even enter a few trials as exhibition.

So now Piper was only one Q away from her CKC RN, and boy was I determined! I found out there was a trial only an hour from Bracebridge the following weekend, and our old instructor was judging! After confirming we were allowed to compete under her, and confirming we were allowed day-of entries, we arrived at the trial the following weekend.

It was a much smaller trial, and Piper was the third dog on the line. I've noticed our early-in-the-day runs are ALWAYS our best. Anyways, it was a phenomenal run. We came out with a score of 99 - only 1 point off for out of position. My faith was restored after our crummy rally runs the weekend before.

Piper heeling in our 3rd qualifying RN run. She really is awesome :)

We are now in an advanced rally class to learn the new signs and practice working off leash. I hope to join our old friends at the Peterborough Obedience Club for their May trial. I was also hoping to try entering in novice obedience, but I'm not sure I will be confident enough for that. Time will tell!

Kinmount Fair

In early September, I jumped at the chance to be part of an agility exhibit at the Kinmount Fair. I go almost every year, and usually take a dog. It's only a half hour from the cottage, so its nice and close. There are great socialization opportunities (crowds, kids, dogs, horses, midway noises, food on the ground), but I love watching the horse shows and performers as well. This year my mom and friend Laura came with me. Laura had never been to a rural fair before, so it was a very new experience for her.

We were part of a relay class, so our run was timed and paired with a young horseback rider's time. Both dog and horse runs were jumper runs. No real handling practice unfortunately, since it was just a row of jumps, tunnel at the end, and another row of jumps. But it was a chance to get Piper out in a public venue, and to run in an unfenced ring in close proximity to horses and spectators! It was a lot of fun, I'm looking forward to participating in the same event next fall!

Toby, Ace and Piper hanging out on the dock at the cottage

ASCA 2014

On the August 1st long weekend, I packed up Piper, Ace, Percy, and Archibald to head south for the annual ASCA show. We stayed with my friend Karen in Waterloo (about 3 hours from home), and traveled another 1 1/2 hours each way to get back and forth from the show, which was in Niagara Falls. The cats had to come since I was going to be gone more than 2 nights - they would get hungry!

Saturday morning we woke up at the crack of dawn (about 5 am) to get ready. Piper and I needed to get there before 8:30 as we were doing day-of entry. We arrived bleary-eyed, but excited! Piper was entered in altered conformation with Wendy, one Rally Novice run and two Agility novice jumper runs with me! Busy day :)

I love the ASCA show, because I love to see all the Aussies...young, old, working, show, and everything in between. They offer outdoor conformation, rally, obedience, agility, and herding on ducks, sheep, and cows. It's an awesome venue!

Piper did not win anything in conformation, although a few kind competitors came over to tell me how nice she looked. There is a specific gait they need to have in the conformation ring, and I've never taught her to run a certain way. So because she paced, no wins for us.

We did pretty well in Rally, with a score of 186. We lost 10 points because I circled left instead of right at one of the signs...super annoying! But, it was her titling run! First performance title ASCA RN...yay!

Agility was in the afternoon, we were entered in 1 jumpers run, as we didn't have contacts at that point. Runs were only about $10 each, so I treated them as practice, and a good opportunity to get used to the trial environment. The first run was a mess, but live and learn! I think I know now what my mistakes were.

The second day Karen went with me to volunteer at the agility field and socialize her puppy Spark to the trial environment. Since the paperwork had been sorted out the day before, and jumpers wasn't until later in the day, we arrived around 10am. We did two jumpers runs. The first one wasn't great, but wasn't bad either. The second one was pretty great! Only one bar down, so I was actually pretty happy with that. More work to do for sure, but it was heartening.

The trial was over by 2:30, so we made friends with a few collie owners who were competing, and headed to the Lake Erie beach! Piper and Spark had tons of fun playing in the water and with the collies. Everybody headed home happy and super tired.

herding clinic 2014

In June, Piper and I attended a herding clinic at Have Ewe Heard, the same place we went for the herding instinct test last spring. The clinic was run jointly by our new friend Mary Anne and the Peterborough Obedience Club.

We arrived around noon, so I could set Piper's crate up on the grass near the sheep pen. We spent about half an hour watching the sheep being run by other dogs, then it was our turn. Piper seemed curious and excited to be around the sheep. When we went into the paddock, she took an explosive turn around the ring, chasing the sheep like stink. Then she stopped. Wouldn't follow them when they moved, all she seemed to want to do was stand there and eat sheep poop. I'll be honest, I spent more time herding sheep than she did, that session. She had to back on a long time, so I could try to lead her closer to them. The instructor and I were stumped... she had done so well last year at the test, and went into the ring with so much zoom! Discussing it after, the instructor suspected maybe she is a little sensitive and one of the sheep have her a good stare down we didn't notice.

Later in the day we had another opportunity to work a different group of sheep. These ones were a little flightier, and moved more easily around the paddock. Piper did much better, and by the end of the session she was able to calmly move around the little herd and bring them towards me. Good girl!

I was so happy to end the day on a good note. I would love to do more herding with her, and the farm where we go is only an hour from where I live now, so it's certainly a possibility. Hopefully in another year or two I will a) have a little extra money to spend on herding classes and b) be stable enough in agility to be able to afford the time to train in two vastly different disciplines.

Piper trying to gather the sheep. June 2014

new town, new job, more agility!

Well, the happy event finally occurred. I landed my first full-time, permanent, professional job as a Junior Planner for a planning consultant in Muskoka. I interviewed around the end of May, and was hired two weeks later, with a start date the third week of June.

That left me two weeks to find a place to live... no easy feat when you have two dogs and two cats. I looked at apartments in several towns, up to 40 minutes from my new workplace. Several were extremely scuzzy (no thank you!) and several were too expensive, or too far away. But I eventually hit the jackpot. I found a building 8 houses down from my office, with one apartment available July 1, and a larger one available August 1. I really wanted the bigger apartment, so was able to make arrangements to move into the smaller one for a month, then move across the hall to the bigger one! The building is clean, the kitchen, flooring, bathroom, and paint all very fresh looking. It is smaller than my beloved Guelph apartment, but big enough for my needs.

My job is also going well. I find the work interesting, and am able to get out of the office for meetings and site visits periodically. I am able to go home at lunch and let the dogs out, and have flexible hours. I am paid a professional wage that will allow me to live reasonable comfortably and pay off my debts. The best part is that when I get home in the evening, I am ready to go and do things! I don't get home from work and feel tired and grouchy - I want to run - bike - train my dogs - cook supper. No shortage of energy here. It's a fantastic feeling.

Now that A) I have the time and B) I have the money, Piper and I have been back in regular agility classes. We have been going out to Huntsville and taking classes with Muskoka Agility Dogs, specifically Lynda Yielding. She is a lot of fun, and is helping me to understand how to walk a course, how to weave, and do contacts. The only crummy part is that they don't hold classes through the winter, so we'll see what will happen then. I'm saving my pennies so hopefully I can purchase a few pieces of equipment that I can store in my trunk and practice with in the park.

I am only an hour from the cottage, so we have been spending many weekend there. Ace just adores it, as he can swim all day long! It makes me feel better that although I'm back in an apartment and leashes are once again required for even the quickest pee break, the dogs can go the entire weekend at the cottage without even wearing a collar. They are just my little stars.

Piper and I have been exploring a few of the many trails in the area. All have been beautiful and quiet, my favourite trail characteristics. Since Ace has been swimming so much on weekends, and I have to be careful not to over-tax his elbows, he has been staying home.

I also started volunteering at the OSPCA last week. I'm hoping to focus on training rather than just walking, to improve my training skills, and hopefully increase the adoptability of the dogs at the shelter.

Piper standing on a log over Muskoka River. Wilson Falls Trail.

Piper climbing on rocks. Wilson Falls Trail.

Piper standing on a log, overlooking Lake Muskoka. Huckleberry Rock Trail. She was wearing a harness because I knew it was a lookout, and was not sure how steep it would be. Thought I would leash her, just in case she accidentally took off running toward the edge! It ended up not being too bad.

academics, puppy visits, vet visits, and agility class!

Wednesday was a great day for me, I was able to present my research at the Campbell Centre for Studies in Animal Welfare annual Symposium and Research Day. There were about 100 people in the audience (scary!!!), including a number of professors, students, and public interested in animal welfare. I think I did pretty well, although I did loose my place a few times. It was nice to be one of only two social science majors, out of 22 presenters.

On Thursday I had lunch with a good friend from Guelph, and visited Wendy (Piper's breeder). Piper and I got to meet another of Piper's littermates, Ryder (who she adored).

All four of my animals also had vet appointments in the afternoon, so we spent about two hours with Dr. Paula. Piper and Percy were both in perfect health, which was good news (although I was expecting it). The vet heard a grade one heart murmur in Archie, although it went away as he relaxed. Something to watch, however it seemed to only be an issue when he was stressed, and he's generally a pretty laid back cat. Ace is my poor, unhealthy soul, unfortunately. The vet now suspects his elbow dysplasia is causing him chronic pain, so she prescribed some painkillers. It breaks my heart, since he's only five years old, but she said he has almost no muscle around his elbows, and quite severe arthritis in his joints. He is to receive minimal exercise, except as much swimming as we can handle! She told me its ok to not exercise him every day, and I was correct to also cut back his food (which I had already done - my 74 lb dog now eats the same amount as my 42 lb dog). We are going to start a painkiller trial next week, he is to be medicated for a solid week, to see if I notice any differences. It's the easiest way to find out if he really is in chronic pain. I had suspected something along those lines, so I was not surprised by her evaluation.

We had a good time visiting my friend Karen, and her super-adorable Turveurn puppy Spark. Spark and Piper are like two peas in a pod, they got along fantastically :) We spent several nights watching agility videos.

Tonight was my last agility class with Piper for a while. We had a pretty good class, only screwing up a couple time in a course that was masters level (and harder than anything that would be seen at a regional level event). I was pretty happy with that! What I was not happy with was that Piper BARKED the entire time she was not working. My instructor told me to step on the leash and ignore her, quietly rewarding anytime she was quiet. The result was an hour and a half of barking. It was brutal. Definitely something we are going to have to work on.

spring

Update: still living with my parents, still working for minimum wage. Sigh. But better job prospects on the horizon!

Next week I am presenting my research at the CCSAW Symposium, which is super exciting. As my research was pretty much the definition of inter-disciplinary, this is a rare opportunity for me to present to a group of scientists. I'm quite nervous about it, actually.

Last weekend I volunteers at the Peterborough Obedience Club CKC trial. I was a ring steward for nearly 7 hours, it was a long day! However I also learned huge amounts, which was great. I've only ever seen bits and pieces of Open and Utility levels before. Still not sure I want to compete at those levels, but I at least know what I need to do to be able to. If that makes any sense.

Ace, Piper and I have been out enjoying spring, and of course getting muddy. I've been a little photo-happy, as you can see. Piper and I have been working on a number of tricks, such as back-up, handstand, beg. Trying to wean her off the treats with the back-up and beg... but I'm really bad at that haha. The handstand is going to take a bit of work I think. Will be awesome when she can do it though! We have a few classes of freestyle coming up with Dante Camacho, so I am looking forward to that.

Blaster, Tucker, Zanna, Ace, Cody, and Piper... it was spring, I swear! This photo was taken in April.

Piper being her usual gorgeous self. I am so lucky to have her.

Ace and Piper enjoying a good game of fetch in the super-muddy park. I love how much they love fetch :)

sledding

Twice this winter, I have taken Piper out with her new friend (and cousin - his uncle is Piper's grandsire) Blaster to go sledding! Blaster's owner has the appropriate harnesses and a sled re-fitted for the dogs to pull.

Blaster (left) and Piper (right). Standing in their harnesses, waiting to go!

It's been lots of fun, but it's lots of work too. Because the Aussies won't just run ahead, we take turns on the sled, while the other person runs ahead to give the dogs a goal to run to. We encourage them as they run, shouting "YES" and "GO GO GO", but they rarely go more than a few feet past the running person. They just want to chase us! It's more work than just an off-leash run, which they seem to appreciate.

Blaster and Piper stopped... "we don't want to run past our people!" Silly dogs, barking their heads off.

Last time we went out, they certainly did a better job with their "go-ons" than the first time. Often Piper will out-pull Blaster, she just loves it! And barks her head off the entire time, which drives me nuts, but I try to tolerate it since she's just doing something she loves.

I'm not sure we will get out again this winter, but it's definitely something I would look into continuing with her next year.

Blaster and Piper pulling Wendy

Blaster and Piper pulling me.

CKC trial, February 9, 2014

Last month, I entered Piper in a CKC trial run by the Hamilton Dog Obedience Club (HDOC). We were entered in two runs of Pre-Novice Obedience, and one run of Rally Novice. We stayed overnight with a friend in Waterloo, so were easily able to make it to the trial on time (arrival at 8:00 am). I found an empty spot and set up Piper's crate, with my chair in front of it.

We had the very first run of the morning at 9:00 am (lucky us!), with Pre-Novice Obedience. Pre-Novice (PCD) is a class that goes before the traditional Novice (CD) (obviously), however it is voluntary. You don't have to finish your PCD before you try for your CD. The exercises are very similar, however easier.  We spent about 15 minutes warming up before we went in, and Piper did pretty well, although I was very nervous. We had a few spots with tight leashes, and a sloppy sit, but other than that we did quite well! There was a Golden Retriever and Belgian Turveurn in our class as well. Since it was pass/fail, there was no winner.

After that, we had a few hours of waiting around. I pulled Piper out of her crate about every 45 minutes to let her stretch her legs, and she was very good. Didn't make a peep while in her crate. I was also in luck, because I had set up Piper's crate in the middle of a group of CDT (Companion Dog Training) people, several of whom I had met before at various fun matches. One lady with a German Shepherd was competing in Utility (the highest obedience level), but was not having a successful weekend. She and her dog were entered in all four trials that weekend, and hadn't succeeded in earning even one qualifying score. The woman on the other side of my had two Cocker Spaniels and was fairly new to obedience, although she had quite a bit of experience with field trials, and beside her was a couple with two Irish Red and White Setters. Both were fascinating to talk with, I enjoyed hearing their stories about all the other dogs they had had and the trials and training issues they had faced.

Our next run was Novice Rally at around noon. We were entered in Novice A, since Piper doesn't have any other CKC titles. The course was essentially three straight lines, with signs all along. There was more heeling involved than I have seen in other rally courses. We kind of suck at heeling. We sped through the course in 1 minute 15 seconds (you are given 2 minutes), and although we did all the stations perfectly, we lost four points for having a tight leash and three points for being out of position. Sigh. Clearly we need to work on heeling. We finished with a score of 93 (out of 100), which is a pretty good score. We got second place out of four. I suspect I was maybe walking too fast, not talking to her enough because I was nervous, and probably not signaling with my body enough. Also, it's possible I didn't warm her up enough or practice enough before we went into the ring. Still pretty good though, and it was definitely a qualifying run!

We had to wait another few hours for our last Pre-Novice Obedience run. I had been nervous of this one for several hours - the judge was a very tall, very loud, black man. Piper (as a typical Aussie) tends to be reserved around strangers, and I had no idea how she was going to react to this judge when he did the examination. We did fairly well with the heeling patterns, and when it came to the examination, Piper not only allowed the judge to touch her, but raised her head so he could scratch her chin! Sometimes that girl boggles my mind. When it came to the sit-stay at the end, Piper broke and lay down with only 10 second left. When I returned to her, the other dogs and handlers were dismissed, and the judge allowed me to re-do the sit-stay, which was very kind of him. We passed, but only because he allowed us the re-do! And so Piper earned her second (out of three) qualifying run towards her PCD. There was the same Belgian Turveurn as in the morning, and a Sheltie in this class as well. 

It was a long day, but successful! Piper now has two legs towards her PCD title, and one leg towards her RN title. Hopefully in the spring we will be able to trial again and finish.

post-move in update

Well, I have been neglectful. Two months since I have posted anything! Here is an update:

The move went well, and we have all settled into my parent's house better than expected. The cats pretty much get free run, and except for a bit of bagel-snatching (Percy), and railing-scratching (also Percy), they have been great. My dad even plays with Percy once in a while. Archie tries hard to stay out the way, and spend most of his time sleeping at the top of the stairs or on my sister's empty bed.

The dogs stay downstairs quite a bit, either with me in my bedroom, or hanging out at the bottom of the basement stairs. The first week after I moved in, I went out and bought mats for my bedroom floors and for the bottom of the stairs for the dogs to sleep on. I would have liked to cover all the floors, but just couldn't afford it. Every evening (and days my dad goes to work) Ace and Piper don their indoor boots and take over the available couches and laps. My mom is quite smitten with Piper, who loves to cuddle and lick her face.

I have been working part-time in a Paulmac's Pet Food store, which is ok. I work by myself quite a bit, or with the grouchy owner. I definitely miss my friends at Rens.

My thesis was defended on December 17, and accepted by the University of Guelph on January 6. Yay me! I have been diligently applying for jobs, but no interviews yet. My fingers are crossed every day, hoping that I will hear from a prospective employer.

Piper and I made some new friends shortly after our arrival in Ennismore, we met a woman and her two Aussies on a trail, and became fast friends. We hike with Tucker and Blaster (who is actually Piper's great-uncle) nearly every week. Through our new friend, we have also joined the Peterborough and District Obedience Club (PADOC), which is fantastic because now we get free obedience classes! We are also signed up to take a class with agility instructor Dante Camacho, recommended to us by Chad, our Guelph instructor.

Piper and Ace hanging out on the couch.

That's all for now! Piper and I are heading to Hamilton in a few weeks for our first CKC trial, so expect another post shortly :)

canine good neighbour test (CGN)

This past Saturday, I drove out to Barrie to enter both Ace and Piper in CGN tests. The CGN (canine good neighbour) test is intended to be awarded to dogs with good manners; they need to be able to be polite while greeting a stranger, walk through a crowd of dogs and people, and be left with a stranger for 3 minutes, among a few other things. It is run by the CKC, and I felt this was a good designation for both dogs to have under their belts, as it might help convince a future landlord that my dogs are good and I am a responsible dog owner.

Piper was fantastic, she did every station perfectly. Ace did jump a bit when the tester greeted him, but he was so amazing in the out of sight stay, they still passed him.

The test was not until 10:00, and I had arrived before 9:00 in hopes of entering Piper in Rally Novice, and Obedience Pre-Novice for the afternoon trial. Unfortunately I mis-read the rules, which I thought stated all entries must be submitted an hour before the trial. Apparently, the rule is that all entries must be submitted an hour before the start of the FIRST trial. I should have been there before 8:00 in order to enter last minute. Disappointing, but I will just have to look for another trial! Maybe there will be one in January I can get to.

busy november

Big things happening. As I am approaching the end of my masters degree, it appears I will be jobless for (hopefully) a short period of time. So, I am leaving my amazing apartment which I love, to move into my parent's basement. Temporarily. I hope.

They are less than thrilled with the two cats and two dogs moving with me, but I'm sure we will all manage just fine. Temporarily.

So it is a busy time of year:
- finishing up my thesis (I think I am almost finished writing)
- packing (I move in 3 weeks)
- visiting all my friends before I move, since I don't know when I will be back to this area
- and training my dogs!

Piper and Ace are registered for their Canine Good Neighbour (CGN) tests on November 16th. We have been practicing, and chatting with a few friends who's dogs have passed, and I think we are ready. As long as they each have 10 minutes or so to settle before we go in, I don't expect any problems. I think this test will be great when I (hopefully soon) am looking for another apartment.

Since there are also CKC Rally and Obedience trials occurring at the same time, I am hoping there will be space to enter Piper in one run of Pre-Novice Obedience, and one run of Rally Novice. It looks like there will be space in Rally, but I'm not sure about Obedience.

I also have to purchase a membership with the CKC, which I'm not super thrilled about, as I strongly disagree with the breed standards imposed on many extremely unhealthy breeds, such as pugs. However if I want to trial in Obedience, CKC is the only venue I am aware of.

Have I mentioned moving in my my parents is temporary?
Wish us luck!

training and vacationing

During the summer, I spent most of my dog training time at home. I was all over the place with my research - literally from Ottawa to Bracebridge to Niagara - as well as trying to pick up hours at work, so decided against any classes.

However, Piper and I are back in the saddle! We are currently enrolled in the Jumpworks class at Companion Dog Training, which teaches us common jump combinations and exposes us to different manuvers such as front and rear crosses. Piper just adores it, I think if she could jump all day long, she would!

We also enrolled in a 3 hour workshop at Companion called Games for Obedience that took place last Saturday. We learned a few tricks, and fun things to do while training to keep it fun. Most of it seemed to be to throw in variations when you're teaching things like heeling and jumping, so they don't know what to expect and to teach them to recover if they don't do it quite right the first time. Piper had cut her foot at the cottage a few days before, but seemed to be ok so I took her anyways. She is not quite healed enough to run around off-leash, but I am leash walking her still. Anyways, we very much enjoyed the workshop, and look forward to continue to practice our heeling. I also want to bring out the dumbbell again, and our scent recognition tubes, as we haven't worked with those in a long time.

The next class I would like to take is Attention One, however I am running out of money, so will probably have to wait until I get a full-time job. The jumpworks class was a birthday gift from my parents.

There are however a few meets coming up, including the Monster Match (also at Companion) about a month from now. The run obedience, rally, and agility fun matches - I will probably take both Ace and Piper. My friends have asked me to help them teach their yellow lab some Rally, so maybe I will enter Rogue as well!

As mentioned, we spent a few days at the cottage last week with my sister Rebecca, who flew out to Thailand on Friday afternoon to spend about 6 months teaching English. We had a relaxing few days, and were quite entertained by Ace, Piper, Archie, Morgan, and my parent's dog Toby.

Ace and Piper racing to get the ball in the water. Ace always wins.

Swimming back with the ball.

Piper standing on the beach, waiting for me to throw the ball.

Toby, looking cute!

Piper looking expectantly at the camera. "Can I run yet?"

Ace taking a break from swimming. It does happen! Usually so he can poop.

ASCA trial

On August 5th, Piper and I drove down with her breeder and sister to the only ASCA show in Ontario, held every August. They were running conformation, rally, obedience, agility, and herding on ducks, sheep, and cows. There were tons of Aussie's around, from rangy-looking working herding dogs, to beautifully groomed show dogs. It was pretty neat!

Wendy decided to enter Piper in all three conformation trials that day, under altered. She didn't win anything, however Wendy was pleased with how quickly she picked up what was expected of her, and was happy that the judges spent as much time looking at her as they did. She may borrow Piper again in a few months to show her. 

I entered Piper in two rally trials. In each trial they started with the more advanced levels and worked down towards the novice level. It was an outdoor ring, bordered by the agility ring and the obedience ring, so there were TONS of distractions. One trial was in the morning, the other was in the afternoon.

The first trial had a very difficult run, I actually got lost and had to backtrack to figure out where I was. I thought it was going to be a non-qualifying run, to be honest. There was also one sign that is done differently in ASCA than in any CARO or CKC venue, so we had to learn it right before we went in. I was so nervous! However, we came out with a score of 189 (out of 200), which is pretty good. I was quite pleased. The other two people competing in novice had non-qualifying runs. We were told at the end of our run to watch out for tight leashes, and that we should be using a 6 foot lead (I was using a 3 footer).

Our second trial/run was late in the afternoon, around 4:00. We had been there since 7:30 am, so we were all pretty tired. This was a much easier run, the course flowed better in my opinion. We borrowed a longer leash from Wendy, and I made sure to give Piper more space. We were dinged for only a few tight leashes, and one handler error, and finished the run with a score of 197! Another novice competitor also scored 197, however Piper and I had the faster time.

Piper with her ribbons: High scoring Aussie (left) and High in Trial (right)

We earned High in Trial (HIT) scores in both runs! Meaning that out of all dogs competing in all levels of rally, we had the highest scores. I am so proud of my little girl to accomplish this at only 13 months, and having learned it just with me in our parking lot.

I am already looking forward to our next set of classes, and more trialing in the future!

Piper (left) and Party (right). Pooped after a busy day at the ASCA trial!

trialing plans

Wow, it has been a busy summer...and it's not over yet!

I haven't had Piper in any classes since she finished level one agility, but we will be enrolling in a jumpworks class for the fall. Last weekend, I took her down to Companion for a fun obedience match. We did one run of pre-novice, and one run of novice. She did well with the pre-novice, only messing up the recall; she broke her stay with the person in the next ring called their dog. She did very poorly in the novice run, obviously we still have a lot of work ahead of us!

I am hoping next weekend we can go to the ASCA show in Niagara, and enter in rally. I am also planning on entering a CARO rally trial in the end of August, to have Piper in Novice and Ace in Advanced.

We have been practicing at home, so hopefully we are prepared!

herding instinct test

This past Saturday, Josh and I took Piper and Baron out to Alliston so they could be tested for herding instinct. It was a pretty stressful morning, figuring out what we needed to bring (not much) and how to time the drive. I really dislike driving to new places - we weren't sure exactly how to get there, or how long it was going to take. But we arrived safe and sound, after an hour and a half of driving.

Once there, we hopped out of the car and went to find someone in charge! The farm was very small, and we quickly found the correct person. It was very informal, which was nice, as we were all quite nervous. Even I hadn't seen sheep so close before!

We walked the dogs around a bit, trying to relax them. There were a number of dogs around, and of course the strange sights and smells of the farm animals. Piper took about 10 minutes to settle, Baron was quite worked up and took a little longer. Josh ended up leaving him in the car so he could watch (and take pictures of) Piper's session.

When they were ready for us, we went into a small gated area and put a long line on Piper, it was probably a horse lead. There were three sheep waiting for us in a larger pen attached to the one we were in. I took Piper through the gate, and the sheep started moving away. The tester had us follow the sheep, to see how Piper was reacting to them. After a few minutes she asked me to drop the lead, and Piper was off chasing sheep!

Piper chasing down a rogue sheep.

Generally she did very well, rounding them up pretty quickly. When they would separate she would chase one down, but often on the wrong side. It took her a little while to figure out what would work. Once the sheep were grouped she would just stand there watching them, and actually started to ignore them - sniffing the ground and going to visit Josh at the fence. Once they started moving again she went right back to work. The tester quite liked her, and said she shows great potential, but she needs some encouragement, and to learn what is expected of her. Not too bad for having never seen sheep before!

Trying to get another sheep back in line, this time correctly running on the outside!

Piper being told to "back off" by the tester.

Piper very properly moving the sheep around the pen.

Piper after the test...tired and happy!

I put Piper back in the car and Josh pulled out Baron. He settled much quicker without Piper around, and was fairly relaxed by the time they went into the ring. Once he saw those sheep, boy oh boy there was no stopping him! He pretty much had the sheep on the run the whole time he was in the pen. He knew his job and he did it! Baron's only problem was that he was a little too keen - he was pretty rough with the sheep, biting at their tails and such. He even came away with a big hunk of wool one time. Oops. The tester said he did very well, and scored him a bit higher than Piper. She also said he would be more difficult to train in herding, since he needs to broken of the biting before much else can happen.

Baron's on the move! Very efficiently moving the sheep.

Continuing to move the sheep in a circle...they were probably getting dizzy.

Baron chasing down a rogue sheep.

Great action shot, although poor judgement on Baron's behalf...this time separating a sheep out.

Baron being told to "back off" by the tester... in no uncertain terms!

Overall a very successful day, and now both puppies can add the title HIC (herding instinct certificate) to their names!

We are hoping to take them to herding lessons sometime in the near future, maybe in the fall. It was a joy to watch them do what they were bred for, they really are amazing animals.

flipping dogs

This is a very cool link I came across, about how to teach a dog to flip for a frisbee. Maybe Piper can learn how to do it this summer!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2QDW4-gexI

training classes

When Piper was little (as in, three months old), we did a puppy class at Elite Dog Training, located in Kitchener. It was good to get Piper out around all the other puppies at such an early age.

We worked on sit, down, name recognition, etc., and the last 15 minutes of every class was playtime! However, there were 16 puppies in the class, so for many of the puppies it was just too overwhelming. Personally I think the attendees should have been capped at ten, 16 was just way too many.

I also didn't like the way she handled puppies that were fearful or snappy. Her method was to hold the screaming puppy until it stopped screaming. Even for puppies who didn't want their mouths touched, she would hold the puppy's mouth open until it stopped struggling and screaming. I'm so glad Piper was pretty good at everything, because I would not have allowed that to happen to my puppy.

I learned from trying to force Willow to sit still so I could trim her nails, that force does not work in dealing with an issue where fear or resistance is involved. A much better way is to use treats to make the experience positive, and gradually work up to being able to complete the task.

Piper growing up! This week she weighed just 38lbs, at around 6 1/2 months. She only put on three lbs in the last month, so she will definitely be a small little girl! Just what I wanted :)

In November we started the Competition Puppy 1 class at Companion Dog Training. I've done probably three classes there with Ace and always enjoyed them, although I sometimes found that I just didn't understand what they were trying to accomplish. Starting with Piper from the beginning has made all the difference! I understand the basics much better, and am actually looking forward to taking more obedience-style classes.

In the Competition Puppy class, we started by learning competition-style sits and downs. Piper and I are still working on the down! Lots of other things as well, like set-up, get-in, front, around, over, wait, recall, and trot. Thinks I'd never done before as well, like how to properly play tug and use it as a reward, fetch work with a dumbbell, and beginning scent discrimination. I very much enjoyed it!

We were signed up for Competition Puppy 2, but there were not enough people so the instructor had to cancel the class. I've already paid, so I'm hoping there will be another class running in March. We may have to switch into the Attention 1, but that would be ok. It's all practice anyways! And now we have two months to fix all the things we didn't have time to perfect in the class.